Feminism In A Doll's House

971 Words2 Pages

In the play A Doll House, there are many suggestions referring to how a woman was expected to behave and how men were expected to behave during the time this play was written. Nora’s character first appears to be very feminist. For an example, she doesn’t have a real job, she spends money carelessly, and she says and does things to make her appear very childish and dependent upon Torvald. On the other end Torvald her husband, makes the money for the family and he appears to be easy going one in the house. The main characters Nora and Torvald pretend to be someone who there are not to please others around them. In the early 19th century society rules where a woman was suppose to be a trophy wife and please a man in any way he asked and the man works and provides for his family and if you disobeyed the society rules you were inhuman like since society was created by humans. Sick and tired of living by society rules Nora decides to make her own rules and leave her husband despite how society would view her.
While reading A Doll House, I realized that Nora was treated as a child/doll mostly by her husband Torvald. Throughout the play he would treat her as he was her father rather than her husband. Torvald watched her every step. He even made sure she didn’t eat sweets fearing it would do damage to his trophy wife teeth. Torvald, “Hasn’t Miss Sweet Tooth been breaking rules in town today?” Nora, No certainly not.” Torvald would like to appear as a person that is a loving and responsible husband; however he is just someone who is incapable of loving someone. One of the most amazing things to Helmer was practicing Nora’s dance routine. It motivated him in feeling in control, not love. His in the beginning it appeared as Nora and Torv...

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...tand out from everyone else so it forces a person to behave in a way they don’t believe in. During the play “A Doll House” the pressure of society destroyed Nora and Helmer’s marriage. Nora was not happy in her life with Torvald, and yet she and her husband are afraid of the embarrassment that would come if they two were to split apart. When Nora decided to leave Helmer he begins telling her, “I have it in me to become a different man.” She ends up creating a change in her life so she can start living how a human being is suppose to with the freedom to assert herself as she please without having to answer to anyone. Ibsen’s point to made in this play is to show how a couple got trapped by society, pushed into a doll house for which they don’t belong; he expressed his feelings on women rights, family and male dominance in this ear by writing this play, A Doll House.

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